Haing Ngor, a Chinese Cambodian, had been trained as a medical doctor but became
a captive of the Khmer Rouge. He endured four years of imprisonment and torture,
escaping execution by hiding his medical background. He escaped to Thailand
and was resettled in the US but was not able to resume his medical practice. Although
he did not have any acting experience, he was cast in The Killing
Fields in a role that parallelled much of his own experience. He earned an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
He appeared on other movies and TV shows, most memorably in Oliver Stone's Heaven and Earth and
the Vanishing Son miniseries. Haing Ngor was also active in the Cambodian refugee organizations. Tragically, Haing Ngor,
who had survived the Cambodian holocaust, would die a victim of LA street gang violence.

Shou moves with his family to LA when he was 11. He studied to be a civil engineer but was much more interested in
the martial arts, an area in which he excelled by winning several national and international championships. He returned
to Hong Kong and worked as a stuntman and minor roles in a score of movies.
His big break came with Mortal Kombat:
The Movie, where he played Liu Kang. He starred in its sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation and appeared in Beverly Hills Ninja. More recently Shou wrote and directed his own documentary/short film titled
"Red Trousers: The Life of Hong Kong Stuntmen"